On the evening of December 17, Shanghai Port officially announced that Australian coach Muscat was appointed as the head coach of Shanghai Port Football Club. It is understood that the club plans to hold a press conference in mid-January 2024, after which Muscat officially took over the team and began to lead the team in training.
Born in August 1973, Kevin Muscat is 50 years old. As a player, he played for Crystal Palace and Wolves in the Premier League, Glasgow Rangers in the Premier League, Millwall in the Championship, and Melbourne Victory in the Australian Super League. After retiring as a coach, Kevin Muscat first worked as an assistant coach at Melbourne Victory before taking over the reins in 2013 and leading the team to two Australian Premier League titles in 2014-15 and 2017-18.
When leading Melbourne Victory, he played Harbour four times in the AFC Champions League, with a record of 2 wins and 2 losses, and it should be said that Muscat is very familiar with both Asian football and Harbour team itself.
It is worth mentioning that Muscat also has a mentor-apprenticeship with the current manager of the Premier League team Tottenham Hotspur, Postecoglou. He was an assistant coach during the leadership of Melbourne Victory and took over the reins from Yokohama Mariners in 2021. Muscat's coaching philosophy is very close to that of Boskat, and Yokohama Mariners chose Muscat because he believes that he can continue the technical and tactical style of Boshuai's high pressing and fast advancement. As it turned out, Yokohama Mariners made the right choice, and under Muscat's leadership, Yokohama Mariners won the J-League championship in the 2022 season, and won the Japanese Super Cup for the first time in the past 2023 season, winning the league runner-up.
For domestic fans, familiarity with Muscat is still through the AFC Champions League group stage match between Shandong Taishan and Yokohama Mariners on December 13. In that game, Muscat led Yokohama Mariner to a 3-0 victory over Shandong Taishan, and the team's rhythm and pressing up front were excellent, and the players' off-the-ball movement and overall tactical execution were also commendable.
Entering the winter transfer window of the new season, for the Shanghai Port team, which has just won the Chinese Super League championship, wants to continue to maintain a strong advantage next season, and at the same time win in the AFC Champions League, it is bound to put forward higher requirements for the adjustment of the foreign aid lineup. Coupled with the increasing age of Wu Lei, Yan Junling, Zhang Linpeng and other "Chongming Phase I", the harbor team is facing a critical moment of replacing the old with the new.
The arrival of Muscat will also bring a new team building idea to the team, under his leadership, what kind of recruitment actions will the harbor have, and will there be a new adjustment of skills and tactics? Let's look forward to it!